All Forum Posts by: Greg Bennin

Anybody have some favorite Asia companies (preferably from a Vietnam port) to work with and import countertops, cabinets, and/or vinyl flooring?  I'll need a 40' container of flooring, 40' container of RTA cabinets, and a 20' container of quartz.  

I'd go with dark low pile/loop carpet.  So many choices in carpet too, marine, hotel grade, extreme stain resistant, or just the cheap commercial looking stuff.   With slippery surfaces like wood you may have a tenant slip and fall, with hard surfaces the chance of breaking bones is higher.  With oak treads you now limit yourself on what will look decent as far as main floor flooring.  Nothing really looks right with oak stairs unless it's real oak flooring.  With vinyl and rubber treads, although super durable, it's more of a commercial look it might weird the people out who are looking for a more warm homely feeling.  Plus vinyl and rubber treads are 5 times more expensive.  Replacing stair carpet isn't expensive, my guess is it'll last 6+ years.  Plus the new carpet doesn't have to match the old.  You could pick a product where you'd only have to replace the damaged tread like vinyl treads but it'd probably stick out as the shiny new one in a bunch of dirty old ones.   

Should I do cash out refi's on two homes at once (duplex with 2 different parcel numbers)? In addition to wanting to complete 2 cash out refi's I need a construction loan for an apartment building to start in May. Equity, Debt/income, DSCR are all fine, I'm just curious if lenders red flags will go up if I do all these loans all at once with different lenders, the properties are in different states. The coronavius has really lowered rates quiet a bit. However the wall street journal prime rate hasn't moved yet which is a bummer.

Not worth getting your license if you're just buying or selling a couple properties a year.  There's a lot of time involved to keep your license active.  Full time real estate agents have to do quite a bit of volume to make it pencil out.  Understand that they receive a lot of calls from potential buyers who want to buy but would never qualify, and then they have clients who buy and sell homes every month. The agent spends their time on things that are a sure thing to make them money.  You will have to sell yourself to the best agents, get prequalified if you haven't, show them proof of funds, just generally make them comfortable that they will get paid some day.

If you want more responsibility that material isn't wasted/stolen, for a little reduction in price then buy material yourself.  If you want contractor to do everything and take more responsibility then make contractor buy everything for a bit higher cost.  Generally to get any type of warranty the contractor will have to both provide and install material.  Flooring, air conditioners etc.

Depending on your location/home age pretty much every house has unpermitted work.  Many would recommend a home inspector, me personally I'd get licensed pro's in there for anything you're nervous about.  A plumber (better if they also do hvac) to evaluate the whole system, electrician, hvac. One thing a good inspector will have is moisture detector, and temperature sensing equipment, that could tell you if something is leaking somewhere.  If you think load bearing (these are usually exterior walls) were modified that's a little more rare, you might need an engineer.  If someones doing work outside usually in a big enough city an inspector will see it and will issue a stop work order for unpermitted work.   

That's great, thank you all for the advice. Yes, llc taxed as s corp.

utah

I built 4 duplexes (8 parcel numbers) to sell in my s corp and ended up renting and keeping them. I've rented them for about a year now, no mortgages. I want to cash out, still own them (not the wisest thing to have them in an s corp I know) and use money to build 30 units next spring.  Each unit of the 8 will only show a $20,000 gain so not a big tax ding.  For the most favorable mortgage terms do I have to quit claim deed the titles into my personal name and have them in my name for 6 months?  I do want to slowly get the get the property out of my s corp (s corp was put together to flip homes and I don't do much of that anymore)  Can I quit claim deed properties into a different llc that's not taxed as an s corp and be able to cash out refi in 6 months with the most favorable financing and not have it in my name? Thanks  

I did this once for a customer when I was a contractor. I'd probably never do it again. I've painted cabinets and they've come out pretty good, but refinishing them is a different story. The most time consuming is stripping the old finish.